WEST Belfast MLA Gerry Carroll brought a jar of blue-green algae water from Lough Neagh into the Assembly chamber on Tuesday as he challenged Executive Ministers to face up to the crisis which he said they created.
Large blooms of blue-green algae have covered large parts of the lough in recent years. The lough is the largest freshwater lake in Ireland.
On Saturday The March for Clean Water, organised by the Save Lough Neagh campaign, will assemble at the gates of Stormont in protest over the lack of action from Stormont over the environmental crisis.
The People Before Profit MLA said: "What I held up in the chamber today is Lough Neagh. It's green, it stinks, and it's toxic. And it is the source of at least 40 per cent of our drinking water.
"People are expected to drink this, to bathe their children in it and to swim in it. I asked MLAs today whether any of them would take a sip. Not one of them would, and yet they expect the public to live with it.
"This water is choking wildlife and destroying biodiversity in the largest freshwater lake on these islands. Swans have been trapped in algae, eels are suffocating. This ecological and biodiversity crisis has been getting worse every summer since 2023.
"This disaster was created by the Going for Growth strategy the Executive parties and official opposition signed up to; by factory farms waved through on the lough shore; by underinvestment in sewage infrastructure; and by a total failure to crack down on agri-polluters.
"Instead of fixing it, the DUP are busy trying to stir up sectarian hatred around Drumcree to distract from their own scandals. Why aren't they, and their Executive partners, fixing the mess they made in our waterways instead of stirring up division?
"On Saturday thousands will march for clean water at Stormont. Fishers, farmers, swimmers, trade unionists from every community. Clean water isn't orange or green, it's a fundamental right. People Before Profit will be there, and we'll keep fighting until the polluters are held to account and Lough Neagh is saved."
